To my Baptist friends (whether you are Southern, independent, or fundamentalist)

I apologize, repent, and ask for your forgiveness

(1): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that the time was after 12:00 noon (and that the Baptists had already shut and locked the doors), that God was going to start ‘moving’ within our midst. It was commonly told at how the Baptists used to have

9:00 AM Bus ministry
10:00 AM Sunday School
11:00 AM Sunday Service
12:00 PM locking of the doors

with precision-like clockwork that this was ‘putting God in a box and tying His hands up and holding him hostage to our desires.’ Therefore, because we stayed until 12:30 PM / 1:00 PM we were ‘God’s special ones’ because we refused to ‘confine God like those Baptists did’ (there was no ‘allegations, it was assumed that it was already true). Oh yes, we got more emotional. Oh Yes, we sung the third verse and the chorus of ‘Nothing But The Blood…’ over and over again to drag out the time.

“We” tarried….. “You” didn’t
“We” listen to God for direction…. “You” follow tradition and ritual’
“We” have dinner on the grounds…. “You” go to restaurants
“We” are the church…. “You” play church…
“We” are not of this world…”You” are the world and the children….

(2):In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that we were both ‘the poorer the purer’ and also ‘the fewer the purer’ while the rich business owner who called himself ‘Christian’ but ‘oppressed’ us in the workplace Monday through Fridays would go to that ‘liberal hypocritical’ Baptist church down the street.

“We” had the ‘Spirit’….. “You” had the money
“We” travel down the Straight and Narrow… “You” use the wide path.

(3): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that when the Baptists built the gymnasium, the mid-week services for the youth group were:

7:00 PM Pre-planned sermon of ‘milk and pablum’
7:10 PM Basketball (aka ‘Baptistball’ where slam dunking is a technical
foul – called pride and taunting)
8:10 PM Locking of the doors

…while we had two hours of teaching called ‘meat’ .

“We had the ‘Spirit’….. “You” had a gym, softball field, and playland.

(4): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that we had a ‘hard not-so-easy Christianity because ‘Great Satan’ was constantly after us because we were ‘God’s end-times remnant’ (and out of the other side of their mouths proclaiming your hard life was due to secret sin, lacking faith, and disagreeing with the pastor) while ‘that Baptist church down the street had an easier Christianity of ‘easy-believism’ and therefore was already deceived by Satan and not doing God’s will to where Satan really did not have to attack them.

“We had the ‘Spirit’ and ‘Knowledge’….. “You” had the money and God already figured out in your head

(5): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that since we had the Holy Spirit and evidence of ’speaking in tongues’ and ‘that Baptist church down the street’ would ‘pride themselves’ on their knowledge of the Word and emotionless reverence (and as I grew older and left pentecostalism, I appreciate and embrace the Baptist straightforward knowledge of the Word a whole lot more thanks to my buddy Triple-P and Charles Stanley), that God blessed us with more anointing and looked upon us with more favor than those Baptists who put God in the box.

“We” had the ‘Spirit’, discernment, prophetic words of extra-Biblical knowledge and ‘Spiritual Gifts’….. “You” had your King James Bible.

“We” hear and speak to God everyday… “You” last heard from God a century ago and are going by tradition ever since.

“We” move when God tells us to… “You” have your ‘committees’ to go through

“We” built mega remnants…. “You” built mega churches

“We” get drunk ‘in the Spirit’… “You” drink ’spirits’ late at night when the kids are asleep thinking they don’t know.

(6): In my younger days of pentecostalism, I (like the other pentecostals in that congregation) used to say ‘amen’ and clap with fervent emotionalism when the preacher used to tell us that when those Baptists died and went to heaven (and they would barely get in with that ‘once saved always saved’ message because when they knew they were dying, then they really start confessing and repenting), that they would be in the ‘Christian culture-shock’ of their life. Heaven was not going to be like a public library atmosphere with boring stale preaching mixed with orchestra music, fundy trumpets, a well rehearsed choir, no drums, and a kiddie handbell choir.

OH NO

Heaven was going to be like a ole-fashioned sawdust tent-revival service with loud noises and hyper-emotionalism with a “Hallelujah Hoedown’ of Southern Gospel singing music with the country twang and men dressed in their like suits and women dressed in their like dresses made from the Simplicity patterns and materials sold in the cloth department at Wal-Mart and those Baptists better learn the words to ‘the blood songs’ (Nothing But The Blood, When I See The Blood, Are You Washed In The Blood, There’s Pow’r In The Blood…) because that’s all we’re singing in heaven, not “Just As I Am, How Great Thou Art, and At The Cross” while we’re running around the place. They better learn how to run also….

“We had the ‘Spirit’ and the music that everyone needs. “You” offer a lot that no one really wants (but if that was so, how come more people attended?)

—-

Once again (in tears, in shakes, and in trembling)

I apologize, repent, to both God and the Baptist people and ask for your forgiveness.

They really believed that ‘we’ were ‘better’ than ‘you’. We actually were arrogant and with pride believing and thinking that heaven was gong to be an eternal form of a pentecostal church service and every other Christian denomination better get used to it, adjust, and get with the program or else….

They really believed that ‘all of us’ were going to get raptured at the Second Coming while ‘a very few of you’ were coming with us.

They really believed that more members and more money automatically meant ’sellout’.

I apologize, repent, to both God and the Baptist people and ask for your forgiveness for my ‘pentecostal pride’, my ‘apostolic arrogance’, my ‘ecclesiastical elitism’.

In retrospect, “we” and “you” are true Christian followers of Jesus Christ. Off and on the past fifteen years, I had privately in my prayers to God apologized to him portions of what I wrote down (I didn’t remember the rest until I started typing and the memory started coming back to me. Foot, I still may have forgotten something to apologize for). It was the fuel of pride back then because ‘we’ thought that we were repairing the breach, raising up Joel’s Army, building Nehemiah’s walls, building Ezra’s temple, purging the remnant, and eliminating Achan’s sin …….

and ‘they’ weren’t……..

Now, it’s the stigma and lead weight of a shame when you realize that really, ‘we’ and ‘you’ really wanted the same core desires

…to see our city reached for Jesus
…to see the crime rate drop
…to see our kids and future grandkids grow up safe and Christian
…to see ourselves as sinners saved by Grace growing in Christ
…to see repentance and rehabilitation at work

“You” showed character. “We” became characters.
“You” showed humility. “We” mistook it for ‘humiliation’
“You” showed dignity. We quoted 2 Samuel 6:14-20 for our indignity

“We” complained about how everybody from our employers, the clerk at K-Mart, our classmates, ‘that devil police officer who gave me the speeding ticket’ and not that heathen Baptist, and public officials always ‘looked down’ on us and were ’specifically out to get us’ because we were the chosen ones who ‘looked different than you’. While on Sunday mornings, we looked down at you in the name of ‘role reversal revenge’ because you “sold out” and therefore could never be as pure as ‘we’ are and a member of the last-days end-time remnant.

“You” showed class. “We” turned this into the ‘Christian class war’.

In many ways, what really took place was a derivative form of what is known as black liberation theology. Where black liberation theology promotes a mentality of the African American Christian being freed from the social, political, and economic bondages and oppressions caused by ‘the man’, pentecostal liberation theology promotes a mentality where one day, the pentecostal (this belief expounded further in dominionalism, new apostolic reformation, and word of faith teachings) will one day be freed from the social, political, and economic bondages and oppressions caused by Satan, ‘the Baptists’, and ‘the mainline denominations’ (aka ‘the man’ because pentecostals think that they are so much ‘like’ the world pentecostals claim they are not of).

Where traditional and conservative black liberation theology claims to not desire special treatment or a payback; but an equal opportunity for freedom and justice, the pentecostal liberation theology believes that freedom and justice can only come when the pentecostal can finally identify that Satan, ‘the Baptists’, and ‘the mainline denominations’ that ‘oppress’ them are the real ‘enemies of God’ (and therefore unequal to them thereby eliminating the need for an equal opportunity for freedom and justice) that need to be conquered, defeated, and placed under their subjection in order to receive a ‘promised land’ (Charismatic Caanan) and a ‘wealth (pentecostal payback) of the wicked’ (Satan, ‘the Baptists’, and ‘the mainline denominations’ that ‘oppress’ them) laid up for the ‘just’ (the pentecostal) as compensation for all the ‘oppression’ Satan, ‘the Baptists’, and ‘the mainline denominations’ placed on their lives.

In other words, an ‘Ecclesiastical Exodus’ must take place (and one day they believe will eventually take place) where Satan, ‘the Baptists’, public officials, and ‘the mainline denominations’ must be viewed as ‘Pharoah’ who rules in the ‘worldly Egypt’ (because they see Satan, ‘the Baptists’, public officials, and ‘the mainline denominations’ as ’sellouts in the Spirit’) and the pentecostals view themselves as “Moses” to part the Red Sea (and flood Pharoah to death by drowning), and their children as ‘Joshua Generation’ in order to see the social, economic, and political justice for those (pentecostals) who are ‘outcast and unwanted’ in the normal scope defined as Christianity.

“We” failed to see ‘you’ as ‘brother in Christ. Instead, we saw you as ‘Christian public enemy number one’ who ‘we’ would one day see God ‘defeat’ and take control of your theology, gymnasiums, music, teachings, softball fields, etc. and give them to us start using them for ‘God’s glory’ to break the ’spirits’ that held people back from being free from sin and addiction because those Baptists and mainline Christians drank alcohol or dressed, acted, and talked like the world did..

It really was pentecostal liberation theology mixed with the world history of the crusades mixed with Frank Peretti’s book This Present Darkness combined with a form of a ‘Christian class war’ (Messianic Marxism) being blurred into a ‘Christian Caste system’ where pentecostals are viewed as the ‘untouchables’ thinking that either a ‘Charismatic “Charma”‘ (the force generated by a person’s actions by sending a televangelist tons of money or holding a mega-fast repentance service on 9-9-09 that will determine the nature of the person’s next phase of life) or the ‘holy war’ of the ‘pentecostal proletariat’ one day overcoming and conquering the “Baptist bourgeoisie” who practiced ‘evangelical exploitation’ over the pentecostal proletariat.

Once again, I apologize, repent, to both God and the Baptist people and ask for your forgiveness for my ‘pentecostal pride’, my ‘apostolic arrogance’, my ‘ecclesiastical elitism’, and for my part in the ‘Charismatic class war.

…..what a gullible and naive idiot i used to be………